Abridged History of the 10th Age

Pixie Barrow Warriors

Barrow-warriors are the lifeblood and the fighting forces of the Barrowlands, and if you meet a pixie who isn’t 0-level, he’s going to be some sort of barrow-warrior. As they progress in power, these deceptively small and comely characters learn to combine the quasi-divine power of death and the stealth and splendor of their kind into an impressive whole.

They gain four nonweapon proficiency slots to begin with, and advance as thieves. They can only use weapons sized for pixies, and gain new weapon proficiencies very slowly, at a rate of 1 every 5 levels, as each pixie is trained in the very limited weapons of his barrow, and is not apt to pick up new ones. They can Pick Pockets, Move Silently, Hide in Shadows, Detect Noise, and Remove Traps as thieves according to table 19 in the DMG.

At 9th level, the Barrow-Warrior begins to become a great personality and leader of pixies, and begins to gather followers.

Pixies do not generally build strongholds, but rather inhabit pre-existing ones, in the form of hollow-hills and crypts.

Any magical items they find that accomodate them they can use, and they can cast Priest spells of the Necromantic sphere ONLY as priests of their level.

However, as pixie society does not encourage personal space or private quarters, pixies are foreign to the concepts of owning things they cannot carry or physically defend, and as such no barrow-warrior can own more than he can bring along with him.

Additionally, a pixie is beholden to an ethos, even though his nature is mandatorily chaotic:

The Lord of Dust and Shadows is the master of all pixies, and they each owe one another a duty, lest the souls of all pixies be put at risk: it is the Lord’s ultimate duty to serve his people and guide their souls unerringly into the Great Barrow Beyond. Beyond his actions as psychopomp, all pixies themselves are beholden to his rule in exchange for this service, and obviously, he to them. It is an inescapable duty.

A pixie must participate to his fullest in the War of Light each time the Master of Dust Darkness dies, and the new Master is bound to guide the soul of his predecessor into the realm of the dead pixies.

If this means sacrificing himself for the betterment of his barrow and his liege, he is bound to.

Barrow Lords are exempt from this, and must be at least 10th level themselves – instead, they are bound rigorously to the care of their barrows and their subjects, and intentionally failing to do so results in the loss of all of the divine power of the Barrow-Warrior, and the enmity of all pixies.

On the upside, they gain considerable power in the form of familial liveries and artifacts, as well as the control of whatever holdings they can protect.

The Lord selects twenty pixies, who all must be at least 12th level, and these are the Boneguard, and they gain the power to wear armor and increased physical and mental prowess with which to defend their Master, as well as the vestments of their position.

However, they are bound to serve him even in death, and once the War of Lights* has concluded, they surrender the Crown of Bones to the new Lord, and they themselves MUSTDIEIMMEDIATELY.

The Lord of Light and Shadow himself must be a pixie of at least 18th level, and upon donning the Crown of Bones, gains all the accompanying powers, which are so myriad and ephemeral that one cannot comprehend them fully until one becomes the Lord of Light and Shadow and the King of All Faeries.

A mate captured and won is the only mate a pixie may settle for, and being slain by a pretty thing that one discovers is more than he can handle is simply the way of things, and it would be incredibly dishonorable to romance a prospective lover in any form but forcefully and with much subterfuge.

Violating this portion of the ethos does not cut one off from the divine might of the sons and daughters of the barrowlands, but does serve to unman and blight one’s reputation!

A pixie has racial enemies in the form of Trolls, Shadows, and MOTHERNIGHTHERSELF, and if a pixie is ever faced with one, directly, he must confront them to the best of his ability. (This would include keeping them bound deep in the earth, for instance, but the soul of a pixie would still yearn to delve in and destroy them.) Failure to do so cuts a Barrow-Warrior off from the divine nature of his race, and he loses his spellcasting and earns crippling shame until he can prove himself worthy again, generally by dying in combat, fighting the Minions of Night.

Finally, and ultimately, a Pixie’s devotion must belong to himself, and in addition to gaining wealth and power and slaying one’s enemies brutally, it is the pride of a barrow-warrior to embarrass and outfox those around him, and cleverly tackling rules and situations that don’t pertain to THEFATE OF THESOULS OF YOURBRETHREN are considered heroic and admirable.